New babies for the yard

A couple days ago I started to feel better. A lot better. Still get tired after doing not-so-much, but I'm still on the mend, right? It's been a really long haul with this illness I had. Nice to feel somewhat humanoid again.

One of the things I HAD to do was price out a job for a potential client. I do free quotes. But, this also requires some time on my behalf. I have to go to the garden center and price out the different plants that I'd be installing in this particular yard. I had to look at arborvitae (good sale going on at Marblehead Garden Center, for anyone interested!), boxwoods, euonymous, grasses, hostas and then peastone.

Certainly not your most interesting combinations, but these people do not want to do a lot of maintaining, and they needed acid-loving or acid-tolerant plants. So, there ya go.

Of course, me going to Marblehead Garden Center is like putting a drug addict in the center of a crack factory. And, well, my birthday IS coming up. And, I did lose some perennials in the back yard. So, what did I do? I bought me some more peonies, and two more, adorable, baby daphne bushes. Oh, those daphne are just so CUTE! I love them so! They are the nicest evergreen and then I showed you the pretty pink flowers they have in THIS POST.

Here is one of the babies: This is in a spot where I had a dwarf spruce tree that was VERY unhappy. I lost more than half of it last winter, and I just couldn't bear to look at the brown and naked spots all over the place. I felt terrible digging it up, but sometimes you just gotta let those things go. I had rescued this spruce from a yard I did over four years ago, but it just didn't like the soil here. Now I have a lovely daphne who will grow and love that spot!

I also added two more Sarah Bernhardt peonies to go with one I planted last year. They are right next to the daphne bush. (Nice weeds in the background, there!)

Then I also bought two more peonies that will be mystery plants until they bloom! They had over wintered at the garden center and had lost their tags, so I have no idea what variety they are! Here's one over by the grill. I put it there in place of a flowering almond that died.

And, here is the other peony by our big wooden bench. You can also see that other little daphne bush under there.

Tomorrow we can look at the other photos I took today, including the ongoing saga of the mystery plant!

Too much to do

Hi. It's been a few days since I was here. What can I say? Still trying to get all the way better, it was Mother's Day, my husband's sister is visiting from San Francisco, I am still busy with doing rentals for my husband's office, I have to do some pricing for two HUGE planting projects that I've put off for over a week because I was SO sick, AND we still have a ton to do on the boat for it to be ready to sell.

Other than that, I have not been doing a THING!

Oh, and I have not announced this on here, but we're also taking the classes for adopting a child! It's called MAPP training - Massachusetts' Approach to Partnership in Parenting. It's every Monday evening and we just did our third training session! It's a huge step for us, scary and exciting and such a big unknown. But, in talking with all the other people in the training session, it is a common experience to be scared and excited. So, we're just taking it as it comes and hoping for the best!

So, as you can clearly see, I have not had anything on my mind! I have the occasional twitch in my right eye, but can you blame me? There is a lot going on over here!

In flower news, there is not much new to report. Things are growing, spring flowers are starting to fade...It's been more seasonable temperature-wise, so that's been nice. I, for one, was not prepared for 80 and 90 degrees. Too much, too soon. We're hovering around 60 for the highs lately and pretty cold at night, in the upper 30s. It's chilly, but that's what the plants need right now to grow at a proper pace!

Things are VERY green right now - that pretty spring green when everything is fresh and new! My hydrangeas in the back yard are almost completely leafed-out:

And, this is one of my ridiculous butterfly bushes in the back. This thing is about 15 feet tall. It didn't read the book about how big it should be! (They're only supposed to get up to about 8 or 9 feet tall!) And this is what it looks like after I hacked it back like crazy earlier this spring!